


Nopheth

by kangeiko



Category: Alias, Carnivale
Genre: Crossover, Russia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-19
Updated: 2006-12-19
Packaged: 2017-10-07 18:15:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/67840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kangeiko/pseuds/kangeiko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>22 March 1943, eight years to the day before Irina Derevko is born, the entire population of Khaytun, Belarus, is burnt alive by occupying forces. Not quite eight years later, her namesake comes to Moscow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nopheth

**Author's Note:**

> A gift for bluerosefairy, following her prompt of 'two dangerous women named Irina'.

_… to New Canaan the false Prophet came, and was buried and wept over … and who among us shall know why? _

Irina buried Justin in the field where he fell, and buried Iris with him. After, she stood and watched as earth and dust and sweet summer rain settled low across his shallow grave, and thought that maybe she should have wrung his neck on the banks of that river, his sweet baby hands clasped in hers. And, still, she heard, _Irina, Irina,_ almost whispered.

And she turned her back.

*

_… the Fire came, and wiped them from the Earth… and in the ruins of those starved ones, those lost ones, those mis-begotten sons -_

She left Iris beneath the loose earth and wasting soil of New Canaan, and took a boat westwards. It took her past Shanghai, and the dragons – free, fierce women with cut hair and red stars pinned to their chests - who turned away as she approached. She spoke little, and listened much, and walked, and walked, and walked.

One grey morning, she woke in Vladivostok.

_The ends of the Earth,_ Irina thought.

(Alexei had been very young when she had taken him into her lap and told him of Baba Yaga, and made him swear fealty to her for protection. _I'll protect you,_ she said, and held his sweet baby hands in hers.)

That night she slept poorly, and woke before dawn, her hands clasped between her thighs for warmth and comfort.

She dreamt of fire.

*

When Alexei craved sweets, their mother would indulge him by pouring a little honey over the morning's frost.

When Irina craved sweets, she was given chores to do.

(Alexei would always share his, and she'd lick his sticky baby fingers clean.)

*

The winds take her, and move her in gales and low sweeping movements westerly across the Union. The soldiers do not see her, and the women cross themselves, and the men, the men, the men –

_the men are dead already._

*

The war wanes, and Stalingrad is colder than steel when she walks the silent streets, sniper fire lighting her way.

*

_… later, later, angels walk the Earth, and those accursed, too, from New Canaan they turn their hungry eyes upon the world…_

She finds the girl asleep inside a bolted house, her belly full to bursting, and slumps outside, and waits. This too, she knows the value of, and of sweet baby hands sticky with honey.

(Come morning, the girl will find a willing nursemaid for her dark-eyed newborn.)

*

_… and the milk and honey ran down their fingers and they ate of it, and were glad…_

*

fin


End file.
